Prolong Battery Life

Batteries provide years of use if used right. Here are some suggestions to maximize your battery life.

General tips on maintaining your battery's usage life

Do not use Super Heavy Duty and other low capacity batteries in high drain devices such as digital cameras.

Store batteries in a dry, cool place and avoid heat situations.

Fully discharge batteries before charging. This is particularly true for Nickel Cadmium batteries which have a memory effect.

Store Lithium batteries (such as the Lithium P7) between 20¡ãC and 25¡ãC (68¡ãF and 77¡ãF) with 30% to 50% charge.

Remove the battery if the device is not used for several days or if the device will be plugged into AC continuously.

Rechargeable batteries should be fully discharged and charged at least once every 3 months.

Many users have asked Camelion about how to maintainbattery life when using chargers. Here are answers to some common questions.

Do quick chargers reduce battery life time? I use the 907 charger and the AlwaysReady battery.

It depends on the charger. For example, the BC-0907 charger uses special technology to ensure that the quick charging does not damage the battery. The pulse and series charging feature uses quick bursts of charging current to not only protect the battery but also increase charging efficiency. Using the right rechargeable battery also is important. The Always Ready battery will not be damaged by quick charging with the BC-0907 and other intelligent chargers. However, in certain other chargers without this technology, the battery can be slightly degraded. In such cases the total number of charging cycles will definitely be less than 1000.

Can batteries be recharged up to 1000 times?

Regarding the 1000 charging cycles claims in our marketing literature please note that very few customers will charge and discharge a battery 1000 times. Nevertheless, by the 1000th cycle the capacity of the battery will be less than the nominal capacity. At this point the battery can still be used but the performance time in the digital camera or other device will be shorter.

I used my Super Heavy Duty batteries in my digital camera and they didn't work. What happened? What devices are super heavy batteries best suited for?

Super heavy duty battery or heavy duty battery are zinc chloride, carbon zinc or manganese chloride batteries. These batteries are best suited for low drain devices such as remote controls, clocks and simple flashlights. Using them in high drain devices such as digital cameras will not work or will results in poor performance.

Can Super Heavy Duty batteries be used in cordless mouse?

The cordless mouse is a high drain device and is best powered by Ni-MH rechargeable or alkaline batteries.

Is it correct the Ni-MH 2700 battery needs to be re-charged for 32hrs? What is the electricity consumption?

The charging time depends on the charging current of the battery charger. In general, the higher the charging current the shorter the charging time. A business case outlining the costs of rechargeable batteries and related electricity consumption can be found in the free Camelion white paper. The rechargeable battery saves money compared to normal non-rechargeable (primary) batteries. In general charging time is a function of charging current and battery capacity. See here for details.

My charger manual says the charger cut-off time is 1.5 hours. What does this mean?

To preserve battery life some intelligent chargers have a timer cut off which stops the charging current after a set time period. Since the BC-907 charger, for example, can charge almost all batteries within less than 1.5 hours its 1.5hr cut off time is rarely reached. The cut-off time is reached in two instances: when the battery due to some defect or malfunction cannot be fully charged or, when the battery capacity is very high and requires additional charging time.

Can I charge or refresh AA and AAA batteries at the same time?

Some chargers can charge any combination of batteries. Or example, the BC-0907 charger can charge any combination of batteries because it has 4 independent charging channels. Therefore the charger can simultaneously charge AA and AAA batteries. These channels that have such independent charging channels will not harm battery life or damage the charger.

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Note: Camelion provides these articles as a courtesy to our reader. Camelion in no manner endorses or verifies the accuracy of these reports.